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The early city was run by the old "Glasgow Town Council". In 1895, the Town Council became "The Corporation of the City of Glasgow" ("Glasgow Corporation" or "City Corporation"). It retained this title until local government re-organisation in 1975, when it became "City of Glasgow District Council". In 1996, following the dissolution of Strathclyde Regional Council and Glasgow District Council, their responsibilities transferred to the new single-tier local authority Glasgow City Council.

The title Lord Provost of Glasgow, used now for the civic leader of the city council, has history dating from the 15th century.

Glasgow Corporation Transport was under the control of the Glasgow Corporation, and ran the local buses and Glasgow Trams, until it was superseded by the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive on 1 June 1973.

During the period of two tier local government (Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973), 1975 to 1996, Glasgow District Council was responsible for refuse collection, museums, libraries and housing, while Strathclyde Regional Council had responsibilities for policing, fire service, water, education, social work and transport.

The city council established in 1996 (Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994), took on the powers and responsibilities previously divided between councils of the Glasgow City district and the Strathclyde region.

The council's executive branch is headed by a Leader of the Council, who is the leader of the largest political grouping, currently the Scottish National Party. The executive committee is usually formed of 19 members across all the elected parties proportionally, however this would have given the SNP a majority of 10 seats despite not gaining one through the election. The Greens proposed an amendment to add an additional seat for each party, making the SNP the biggest minority party.[9] It was passed and so its composition of 23 seats is currently:[10]

Prior to the 2007 election, there were 79 councillors elected from 79 single-member wards by the plurality (first past the post) system of election. The result from this system in 2003 was 69 of the 79 councillors representing the Labour Party, although that party gained only around half the votes cast in the election to the council, and the Scottish National Party represented by just four councillors, despite gaining some 20% of the votes. There were also three Liberal Democrat councillors, one Conservative councillor, and one Scottish Socialist Party councillor.

The 1999 council election result was even more skewed in terms of seats and overall vote share due to the voting system in use, with Labour receiving 74 seats (94% of the seats) from 49% of the vote and the SNP receiving 2 seats from 29%.